Index Page

1. Description Page
2. Comparing Page
3. Stats Page
4. Personal Expiernce
5. Quiz Page

Welcome to my websiete on the Skaneateles Hockey Team

By Ben Clymer

When people first hear about Skaneateles they think about our lake. But what they don't know about is our varsity hockey team. The Skaneateles varsity hockey has been one of the best hockey organizations in New York State for the past 10 years. That is very impressive considering players only have 4 years to play so you have to have good hockey players in a lot of different class years. Also, you have to have good coaches to be a successful team. For the past 10 years, there has only been 1 head coach. His name is Mitch Major. He has been referred to as the Bill Belicheck of the high school hockey.He started coaching the varsity high school team in 2000. He was crowned co-state champion in 1989 when he graduated from Skaneateles high school. He is a 6-time coach of the year in section 3. He has a daughter and two sons one of which plays on the high school team. But he has some great assistant coaches as well. His main assistant is Jeff Bobbett who has been with Mitch since 2005. He also went to school at Skaneateles High School and graduated in 1993. Jeff plays a big role in devloping the defense for Skaneatles. But Mitch has also had some other help from other coaches. Last year in the 2017-2018 season Topher Scott was an assistant coach. Now you might not know who Topher is if your not a local hockey fan. Topher was a very good hockey player growing up. He eventually went to Cornell for hockey at a time where Cornell was one of the best college teams in the nation. At Cornell, Topher won a national hockey championship. Topher was on his way to the NHL but unfortunately he had a knee injury that put him out of condition. But luckly for Skaneateles hockey he decided to use his hockey talent to coach. While Topher only coached one year for the Skaneateles varsity team, he coached many of their players on the side at his clinics. Topher left after the end of the 2018-2019 season. The next year Mitch had to fill the big gap of another assistant coach. He chose his brother, Micheal (Mike) Major. Mike is also the assistant principal of Skaneateles High School. Even after losing 7 seniors from the 2018-2019 hockey team, this years team is still predicted to make it to states and likely win. They are ranked number 1 in the state for divsion 2. They are also currently undefeated and have beaten many teams from divsion 1. The divsion marks how big the school you go to is or the amount of people that the coaches get to pick players from. So Skaneateles is in division 2 becuase it is a small school with each class size around 100 students. Then theres teams in division 1 like West Genesee or Camilus where their class size is around 200-400. Even with that big of a school Skaneateles still beat West Genesee 1-0. In fact Skaneateles is undefeated with a record of 16-0-1. That 1 on the end is a tie against Auburn. But Skaneateles and Auburn played again later in the season and Skaneateles won 10-0. Even though Skaneateles varsity hockey has been good for the past 10 years they have only won states twice. They won in the 2014-2015 when my brother was a junior. And my team won it in the 2018-2019 season when I was a sophmore. The 2015-2016 season the hockey team made it back to the State finals but lost in the championship in overtime. This shows that it takes a lot to win states which it does. Hockey is a very time consuming sport. Practice starts at 3:15 after school everyday except for gamedays. But it takes awhile to get dressed so you have to be at the locker-room before 3:15. Practice ends at 4:45 but it also takes awhile to get undressed and some people take showers in the locker-room after getting undressed. On gamedays you have to be at the locker-room one hour and fifthteen minutes early to get warmed up. Therefore hockey is time consuming and it is sometimes a struggle for the players to keep a good balance between school and hockey. Throughout the years of Skaneateles hockey their program has produced 70 plus all-state players. An all-state player means one of the best throught-out all of New York state in division 2. 3 of the all-state players from the 2018-2019 team commited to a prep school for hockey. Bauer Morrisey a Junior commited to Milbrook for hockey and as of now plans on playing in the juniors next year. Ryan Gick and Luke Lynn, two seniors, comited to Brewster for hockey. From the current team over 5 players plan on going to prep school next year. Two of the more impressive comitees are Charlie Russell and Garrett Krieger. They are both commited to Northwood which is said to be the best prep school for hockey in the United States. They both plan on attempting to get into the NHL. This just proves the point of how Skaneateles Varsity breeds some of the best hockey players in the state and even the country.

Comparing 2 State Winners

Because in the last 10 years only two teams have won states, people compare those two teams a lot to try to figure out who was better becuase they cannot play each other. Here are the rosters for both of those teams.

Stats of Skaneateles Hockey

My personal experience of playing on the Hockey Team

I first tried out for the team when I was a freshman in high school like most hockey players do. At the time I was nervous because I was this little 5 foot kid playing hockey against a 6 foot senior. But as time went on I got more and more comftable playing with these older kids who I didn't know. As the season went on I created bonds with people I had never met before. That is what I think of when I think of hockey now. I think of how I created bonds with so many guys who I would never imagine I would be friends with. For example a guy named Jimmy Libertore. He lives past my house and is two grades above me. After practice one day when I was a sophmore and he was a senior I asked him for a ride home. On the ride home him and I started talking and realized that we had a lot in common. He drove me home for the rest of the year after games and practices. Before the start of the season I didn't really know who Jimmy was and by the end he was one of my best friends during the season. My first two years on the varsity team were kind of boring for me becuase I wasn't good enough to play so I had to keep stats, but I still had fun at practice. This year though is a different story. I love playing right now, I feel like I've never had so much fun. Every day i'm just waiting before I can go to the rink, get dressed, and get out on the ice.

Final quiz on the Skaneateles Hockey team

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